Shifts
by calenlily
Summary: F'lar and Lessa in 50 sentences.


_Disclaimer_: I only wish.  
_A/N_: Just a quick writing exercise, based on the prompts from the livejournal community 1sentence (a mix of sets alpha and beta, yeah I didn't quite follow the rules, but I'm only writing them for myself, so what does it really matter?). Timeline on these is all over the map. So references to In a Position to Persevere (even a few to parts that haven't been written yet). Thanks to moviemom44 for betaing. Please review!

* * *

**1 Sentence Challenge: F'lar/Lessa**

1. Comfort  
She doesn't want to admit that his presence has become a comfort, but that doesn't make it any less true.

2. Kiss  
Their kiss when reunited after she returns from the Oldtime is like something out of a Harper's tale: the whole world watching and they don't even notice.

3. Soft  
When she finally comes to him again, he is so gentle she wonders why she was ever afraid.

4. Pain  
Lessa always seems so strong that it stuns F'lar on the few occasions when she speaks of the old pains, of the years in disguise that still haunt her dreams.

5. Worry  
Both of them claim to be stoic and unaffected, but if either is injured or in danger, the other will go frantic with worry.

6. Whimsy  
Dragonriders and committed relationships don't tend to mix, so the first time the thought occurs to him that what he feels for her might be something _more_, F'lar dismisses it as mere whimsy.

7. Waste/Wasteland  
He doesn't realize it's love until she has disappeared 400 Turns into the past; the thought that he'd rather all Pern turn to a Thread-bared wasteland than lose her is quite the jolt.

8. Happiness  
If happiness was a foreign concept to her not so long ago, well, that just means they have that much lost time to make up for.

9. War  
When, frustrated once more by Lessa's stonewalling him, F'lar complains that the whole world is against him, Mnementh "helpfully" replies that, yes, it is.

10. Ears  
At first they try to keep their relationship a secret, but in a Weyr that's as futile as if the walls had ears, for dragons are terrible gossips.

11. Name  
Mnementh insists on calling the Weyrwoman by name; F'lar really doesn't need another reminder that his dragon is closer to Lessa than he is.

12. Sensual  
For being entirely inexperienced, she is amazingly sensual, he reflects with pleasure.

13. Death  
Drastically different circumstances, but it's the second time in less than a year he's been faced with the prospect of losing Lessa; if he wasn't so out of his mind with worry, he might find the connection of birth and death ironic.

14. Sex  
It ruined their working relationship once, now it cements it.

15. Touch  
Overwhelmed and confused, she desperately tries to forget that tumultuous first mating flight, but there is no escaping the memory of his touch.

16. Weakness  
It takes the longest time to convince herself that loving isn't weakness, but eventually Ramoth manages to put things in perspective for her.

17. Belief  
Despite constant bickering, their shared belief in the unpopular opinion that Thread would return keeps drawing them back together, whether they like it or not.

18. Speed  
The speed with which she becomes accustomed to his presence in what was formerly her personal space is disturbing - but not more so than the idea of having it otherwise.

19. Wind & 20. Freedom  
Freedom is flight, glory and strength and wind beneath her wings... and, wrapped up in the sensation, she doesn't notice bronze wings covering her own until it is too late. Ramoth protests as she is caught but, somewhere far below, Lessa smiles as she is enfolded in her weyrmate's embrace.

21. Life  
Hiding was appropriate when it was for the sake of survival, but she has a new life now, and dealing with the Weyrleader is part of it, and - her pride reasserts itself - hiding at this point is absolutely ridiculous.

22. Jealousy  
Lessa's blood boils when she sees the sensuous blonde fawning over F'lar, but what reason has she for jealousy if -- as she so desperately tries to maintain -- there is nothing between them?

23. Hands  
F'lar will always remember the day Ramoth first clutched because Lessa said she believed him and laid a hand on his arm; it was the first time since the mating flight that she'd touched him voluntarily.

24. Taste  
She watches F'lar taste his klah and teases him about the ridiculous amount of sweetener he insists on adding, wondering all the while when it was that their tendency to make pointed jibes at each other turned into this kind of ritual banter.

25. Devotion  
They may not (normally) be a very demonstrative couple, but to anyone who sees them, their devotion is evident.

26. Forever  
They have no need for clichéd promises of "forever" and the like - even without the words, they _know_.

27. Blood  
"There is too much blood," the Healer says, and what started out as a joyous day becomes one that will haunt him for Turns.

28. Sickness  
When he is injured in the knife fight was T'ron and then takes sick, she frets and frets - and then tries to deny it because she isn't the type to worry, of course not.

29. Melody  
The Harper Hall has circulated a new set of tunes; she grudgingly admits the appropriateness of an account of her heroic venture to the Oldtime, but Lessa announces her attention to kill Robinton upon hearing the love ballads with thinly disguised identities.

30. Star  
The baleful gleam of the Red Star seems to mock him, reminding him of too many duties that need to be attended to when he would so much rather stay in bed with Lessa.

31. Home  
One more item on the very long list of things Lessa does not want to admit: just how much he is responsible for the shift in where she considers home to be.

32. Confusion  
Years of practice hiding and masking her emotions allowed her to project a facade of control, but she had never been so confused as that morning after the mating flight.

33. Fear  
She doesn't know which she fears more, opening her heart or missing the opportunity.

34. Lightning/Thunder  
A vague forbidding chill, unsettling though it was, seemed an awfully subtle signal for such upheaval; shouldn't there have been thunder and lightning or something to herald the days that turned Lessa's life upside down?

35. Bonds  
There is no formal marriage in a Weyr, but it would take a fool to deny the bonds between them.

36. Sordid  
A small vestige of her original teachings as a proper holder girl still think it vaguely sordid not to have any formal arrangement, but that comes from a life she's all but forgotten, and anyway Lessa is nothing if not adaptable.

37. Soliloquy  
"I am Lessa of Pern, I have nothing to fear!" she declares, but the fact remains that the thought of intimacy terrifies her.

38. Gift  
She trusts him with her body because her heart was already his whether she willed it or no, and most of her decision is simply realizing that.

39. Smile  
He always feels as if he has won a prize when he manages to provoke one of her rare genuine smiles.

40. Innocence  
Her innocence was gone years ago, so the only thing he's taken from her is physical ... right?

41. Completion  
Two confessions ("I love you"; "I missed you") on the night of her return seem to change everything, but are only the completion of a months-long shift in their relationship.

42. Clouds  
She dares to soar above the clouds; he has the sense not to bring her down.

43. Sky  
She normally loves flying, the thrill of having all the sky spread out around her - but by the eighth month of having to fly straight to get anywhere, she puts a hand to her swollen belly and mutters darkly about "if I didn't love him so sharding much..."

44. Near  
One month in the past teaches her the startling truth of how much she relied on having him near.

45. Natural  
A lifetime of hiding, of secrets, of keeping to herself - and now, it seems the most natural thing in the world to confide everything to him.

46. Horizon  
The haze of silvery strands that appears in the sky signals the return of an ancient blight on the planet and the start of a very long battle; still, as she adjusts her flamethrower and looks to the horizon, she cannot help thinking of what a triumph it is to have made it this far.

47. Valiant  
She made a valiant effort to resist attraction, but ultimately she couldn't even fool herself.

48. Virtuous  
The sweeter she sounds, the less innocent she is.

49. Hair  
He complimented her hair the first day they met; she almost cut it off afterwards just to spite him, but it was one of her few vanities, and she is glad of that later.

50. Defeat  
She has been waging a battle with herself for weeks now, trying not to fall for F'lar - but when she ultimately gives herself to him, surrender never felt less like defeat.


End file.
